Aoi Sora no Neosphere (1) – Too much talking!

aoi sora no neosphere_frontI like item crafting games, the more full-bodied, the better. RPGs with crafting are a dime a dozen, but Gust pretty much has the market cornered on “Here, make items for 40 hours” games. I love Gust and all, but it’s nice to see takes on the genre (if you can call it that) from other companies.

Which brings me to Aoi Sora no Neopshere: Nanoca Flanca no Hatsumei Koubouki 2, known in English as Neopshere of the Deep-Blue Sky. Developed by Kogado Software, Kumasan Team and Nippon Ichi Software, Neosphere came out in 2007 as the sequel to Aoi Umi no Tristia, the first game starring Nanoca Flanka and her team.

I tried to play Tristia about 4 or 5 years ago, but the hour-long save-free prologue turned me off entirely. This time the prologue has been divorced from the beginning of the game, meaning you can dive straight into the game and pick up the story as you go. Since I am somewhat enjoying Neosphere, I might go back and play Tristia one day.

So, who is Nanoca Flanka and why do we care about her? She’s the red-haired loli on the cover. That’s probably all some fans needed to see to pick up the game, but we have higher standards than that. Nanoca is the genius alchemist granddaughter of the genius alchemist Prospero Flanka. She has been sent to the floating land of Neosphere to help them recover after a world war. When she gets there, she finds herself caught up in a power struggle between the loli queen and the not-loli-at-all Council of Elders. No points for picking which faction she sides with. Now Nanoca has to rebuild Neosphere with her alchemy while sidestepping political interference and helping put the Council in their place for good.

Do please go on, this is most interesting →

Played a little more Final Fantasy Type-0. It’s still a mess.

PIC1Last time I posted I was 5 hours into Final Fantasy Type-0, now I’m at the 10 hour mark. I still don’t know what I’m doing, but whatever it is it’s working, because I’ve completed two more missions. C ranking and pitiful money for both, but completion is completion. A few notes.

– The story is boooriiiing. Nothing’s haaaappeniiiiing! Byakko invaded Suzaku. Suzaku is fighting back. Suzaku has been fighting back for the past 10 hours, with no end in sight. Boring! Move on already!

– Also I hate battles where the boss shows up and we obviously beat him to a pulp, but then he goes flying off while gloating, “Mission Accomplished!” Every RPG is allowed exactly one such scene, and Type-0 just used up its quota.

– For some reason, someone at Square thought it would be a good idea to allow level 99 monsters to wander the world map, just because. I wish I could find that someone and feed them my fist, just because.

– I can’t get the hang of the button presses. I’m supposed to press 0 + Triangle to summon an eidolon, but I press and press and press and nothing happens. Until I press long enough and get lucky, but that’s after like 20 failed presses, nearly getting me killed.

Do please go on, this is most interesting →

Kamiyo Gakuen: Makouroku Kurunugia – A terrible rip-off of a terrible rip-off

kamiyo gakuen_frontNot content with merely dreaming up bad ideas, Idea Factory now resorts to stealing them. Far from being shocked or upset, I’m rather pleased to see this side of Idea Factory. Up till now I’d heard the tales of their horribleness, but I’d never personally experienced it for myself. The games I played were either unexpectedly enjoyable (Ore ga Omae wo Mamoru, Wand of Fortune, Motto Nuga-Cel) or so immediately off-putting that I quit within an hour, thus keeping the damage to a minimum (Hiiro no Kakera, Generation of Chaos, Blazing Souls). This is the first time I’ve encountered a bad !f game and stuck it out to the end. It’s been… quite the education.

First off, what is Kamiyo Gakuen ripping off? If you saw “Gakuen” in the title and guessed the Tokyo Majin Gakuen series, you score 5/10 (+1 for even knowing about that series). I’m sure they would have copied Tokyo Majin if they could have, but a company named Asmik Ace beat them to the punch years earlier with Tenshou Gakuen Gensouroku (2004) and Tenshou Gakuen Gekkouroku (2006). The canonicity/otherwise of the various Majin/related games is a little confusing, but I’ll try to sort them out as best as I can.

– Tokyo Majin Gakuen series (1998-2008) – Developed by Shuuho Imai and Shout! Designworks, published by Asmik Ace. Canon.
– Tenshou Gakuen series (2004-2006) – Developed and published by Asmik Ace. Disowned by original creators. Not canon.
– Kowloon (Kuuron) Youma Gakuenki (2004) – Developed by Shuuho Imai and Shout! Designworks, published by Atlus. Canon.
– Tokyo Mono Hara Shi: Karasunomori Gakuen Kitan (2010) – Developed by ??? published by Atlus. Official spin-off (?)
– Kamiyo Gakuen: Makouroku Kurunugia (2008) – LOL Idea Factory.

Do please go on, this is most interesting →

Give me another day or two

monkey-scratching-headI’m playing a very… uh… nice… uh, I don’t know how to describe it… “game” from Idea Factory, everyone’s favorite game developer. I thought I’d be done by now, but I keep falling asleep when I try to play it. I was going to write about it now, but it’s not really the sort of …game that lends itself to an interim report. The story is fairly interesting though, and I’d like to see how things turn out, so I’ll tough it out a little longer. Everything else, including a Disgaea re-attempt, is on hold until I get this finished. See you in a day or two.

Disgaea: Hour of Darkness – Why can’t I bring myself to like this game?!

Disgaea Hour Of Darkness COVERIt’s worse than not liking Disgaea: I can’t even bring myself to play it. Three times I have tried to play this game, and three times I have gone down in defeat. The first two times I barely made it past the hour mark. This time I gave it “the mother of all college tries” as I said I would and managed to play 2 hours and 30 minutes before throwing in the towel. This is just not the game for me.

Of course, there’s no need to force myself to play something I don’t like, and even less need to do it three times. The only reason I gave it so many tries is because I love SRPGs, and I’m always on the lookout for new series. If Disgaea had been a success, that would have opened up the way for me to play the original plus the three sequels as well as other related games like La Pucelle (which I have also tried and failed to get into) and Phantom Brave. So it’s a bit unfortunate, to say the least, that things didn’t work out between us.

What makes this particular failure so baffling, though, is that I was certain I could do it this time. I analyzed my past two failures and concluded that I quit so soon because I got intimidated by all the game features. Item world, mentor-pupils, Mana, Dark Assembly, Ranks, Geo Symbols, Geo Panels, Transmigration, Rarity, etc etc etc. I read the in-game tutorials on all those and got turned off before I even gave the game a proper chance. This time, I determined, was going to be different. After all, multiple fans and even an in-game NPC had told me I could ignore all that stuff and just play the game ‘normally.’

Do please go on, this is most interesting →